“uh… uhh…. FLASH!!” I thought… Just thought… It might work.
But it didn’t work, and now I looked even more like a guilty idiot.
Grey glanced around in confusion as he tried to piece it together… His eyes were drawn towards Vernon, and being the little scout boy that he is, he snitched me with nothing but a mean gaze from the lynx.
And as soon as Vernon stared at me, Grey caught on. “You were messing with my stuff!” He called out.
“L-Let’s not jump to conclusions, shall we?” I tried to reason. “Vernon was with me all the time… It was both of us!”
“I wasn’t!” Vernon cried out. “I told you to stop that!”
Grey’s expression narrowed down into a fulminating gaze… He started to step into the tent and I felt the inside suddenly get a hundred degrees hotter, and I struggled to breath. “It was… a mistake… I’m not doing it again.” I kept trying.
But he kept a silent stare all the way till he got on top of me as I struggled to still keep a pair of pants hidden beneath my butt. “You have any idea how much danger you were in?”
“Uhh….” I shied away… He seemed like my dad all the sudden. “No.”
Then he closed in, raised his hand, and with a single swift movement… He landed his clenched fist atop my head with a thud. “Idiot.” It didn’t hurt at first, but then he pressed it down and kept giving me noogies, his tone like an angry parent scolding a child. “My suitcase is not a toy, if you are bored go play around with your guitar! Or literally anything else!”
He huffed and pushed further… It now began to hurt significantly worse. “I’m sorry… Please… I won’t do it again! Please don’t be mad at me!”
“Mad?” He took a step back and let go of my head. “I was worried! You have any idea what I keep in zhat thing? If you picked zhe wrong number you could have blown yourself to pieces, along with Vernon and Elishia.”
“I could have?” My eyes widened as knowing Grey… There was a pretty big chance he was telling the truth. “Elder’s blood… You’re serious?!”
“YES!” He emphasized. “You are a moron, I told Vernon about zhe traps? Why would you not listen to him?!”
“I just wanted to know what was in it!” I retorted, with the eloquence of pouty six years old.
“Zhere are more zhan ten thousand combinations! What was your damn plan?! Checking it one by one?!” He scolded… And he had no idea how right he was until he pieced it together. “Oh gods… It was, was it not? It is how you have zhe list! You were actually planning on going one by one!”
“It’s not my fault… You made a list to kill me!” I argued again. “Why would you even make it like that?!”
“To kill anyone zhat stole from me, you dickhead! Any idiot zhat thought it was a good idea would see zhe list and not think twice before doing what YOU just did! But you are somehow worse, because you knew it could happen!”
He sighed heavily and shook his head in disappointment. “If you had asked, I would have taught you zhe important combinations, just like I did Vernon!” He crossed his arms and started banging his feet on the ground… Until his feet touched a soft tissue that he recognized in spite of my best attempt to sit over it. “My pants?!”
His eyes widened at the realization as he jumped on me. “What other numbers did you try?!” He shook me on the spot.
I was still flailing around. “I don’t recall…” I answered, truthfully, I might add, it was all erased from my memory the second he asked to know.
Vernon stepped in. “It was… His birthday, then my birthday, then the number for those clothes, but I forgot that one… And ‘that’ number.”
Which reminded me I had something to ask, given the contents I saw… But the second I thought about asking it, Grey stared ugly at me and I promptly shut up. “Was zhat all?”
“Yeah…” I answered… He seemed very serious all of the sudden. “Why is that so important?”
He narrowed his expression, then he took the suitcase, moving over to the side and giving his back to us. He placed it on the ground and input a combination I did not get to see, but that felt somehow more complicated than a simple four digit… Then he opened the suitcase, and let out a long sigh of relief, right before he closed it again. “You…” He looked back at me, his stance quickly resting as he quieted down. “… I will let it slide zhis once, just do not do it again.” He reached over. “And give me my clothes back!”
“Yeesh…” I rolled away and started handing him his stuff. “Sorry… If I knew it was that important, I wouldn’t have messed with it.” Though that was probably a lie on my part.
“It is Azreth…” He answered dead serious. “… Zhis suitcase is where I keep everything, from guns and ammo to my own personal mementos, to lose zhis would be devastating for me, it is why I made it so sturdy and protected… Physically I do not believe even you could destroy it, so I set zhe traps in case it got stolen, as well as tracker zhat only I know zhe frequency of.”
“Just take a moment to think next time, am I not entitled to some privacy? Your curiosity should have some limits, should it not?” He scolded further.
I growled to myself in frustration.
In my curiosity I didn’t even think just what I was messing with, thinking more clearly now I realized just how protective Grey is with that thing, he almost never parts with it… He doesn’t carry any personal belongings with him too, so it would be safe to say EVERYTHING he has of valuable was inside that single metal case.
Now that I realized how much he could have lost, I felt… Horrible. “Sorry…” was the only thing I could say, but it didn’t feel like it was enough.
He just shook his head, then he looked at me… A half-smile coming up. “It is… Fine…” He tried to move past it. “You two are safe… Zhat is zhe important thing.”
“I was just trying to entertain myself… Maybe find a little secret to tease you with…” I looked away in embarrassment. “It was meant to be just for fun.”
He raised an eyebrow and huffed in surprise. “Hu? What else do you want to know about me?”
“I don’t know…” I was blushing and itching myself. “… I was just bored.”
“Well…” He folded his clothes carefully and methodically. “You two are zhe people zhat know zhe most about me in zhe entire world right now, not even my tutor, or Pontus knew as much about me as you two do, is zhat not enough?”
“Really?” I asked and he nodded… Which made me feel a bit better, but still. “I guess… I was just looking to know more… Maybe some dirty detail.”
“And you are also zhe people zhat know zhe dirtiest details about me…” He finished putting his stuff back and closed of his suitcase.
“Shit man…” I looked away completely embarrassed. “What do you want me to say? I was just bored! Bored and curious… I wanted to see some cool stuff, alright? You have guns, and explosives, and all this cool shit! And all I got is… Fist! And a bit of unreliable magic.”
I looked away. “Maybe I just wanted to be cool like you... I don’t know.”
“Zhat sounds more truthful…” He looked over me, he stalled around for a bit, clearly thinking about something, in before he sat down and crossed his legs while placing the suitcase in front. “… Fine…” He pushed the suitcase over to me. “… You can check a few things, and I will make sure you do not mess it up.”
I raised an eyebrow as I took the suitcase. “It feels kind of weird with you here.”
“You would rather I waited outside so you could blow us all up?” He sneered.
“Well… I guess this is as good as it gets.” I adjusted my sitting. “What should I start with though?”
Vernon who had been quiet up to this point decided to speak up. “You guys are doing good now?” To which we both nodded and he added. “Okay… I… Still need to brush… I’ll leave you two to it.” Before he took his stuff and started heading out.
“Okay baby, take your time.” I watched as he moved out of the tent leaving the two of us alone in there.
Grey moseyed on over to my side where he pointed at the number pad. “Zhere is a large number of possible combinations I could teach you… Zhere is a combination I use for drawing supplies, one zhat I use for some schematics or parts, one for zhe screener in case you ever feel like learning to operate those… So long as you promise not to use zhem to peek at me or Vernon while we bathe.”
“I like the live version better, but now that I think about it could learn to record… Just in case we ever feel like it.” I gained a cocky little smirk as I watched him… I noticed then one curious detail in his behavior, as the prospect of teaching me about his expertly made suitcase came up, he smiled a whole lot more… Kind of like Vernon, when he gets really into an explanation.
I could see the little proud glisten in his eyes, I call it the nerd glimmer. “So is there anything else?” I asked to lead him on.
And that was the quickest bait to be snatched. “Oh, so many things… I got spare parts, inert sigils, jewels an-”
“Jewels?” I asked in shock. “You have something other than that old bone necklaces, right?”
“Well… I thought zhe suit you saw earlier was joyless, so I got myself some silver to help make it look a bit better… I only ever wore it once, maybe twice.” He was shy when it came to this vanity stuff... And I loved to see it.
“Well maybe I could use some of yours… I’d love some new piercings.” I genuinely smiled as we we started to relax and ease into the conversation.
“Sure… I could put zhem on you.” He answered with a distinct happy smirk to. One I could not stop noticing and smiling back at. “What is so funny?” He asked… unaware that it wasn’t about being funny.
“Nothing… Nothing.” I entertained myself with him.
I then lowered myself on my side and laid my head on his lap using the one good leg as a rest. He promptly blushed, normally this is the sort of thing I did to Vernon, so I can see why it estranged him… But heck If I was gonna move, his fur was a lot thicker than Vernon, and his legs had a lot more meat, it was a perfect pillow. “Just go on.”
He reclined a bit back and looked at me raising an eyebrow. It was only then that a thought occurred to him… “Did you…” He began to ask, but was quickly silenced as he pondered, and finally decided to ask. “… Did do all zhis so I would spend some time with you?”
“Me?” I asked in confusion. “I was just bored… You came on your own accord.” I answered, grinning maliciously as I teased.
He harumphed rather loudly, then looked at me and shook his head. “I got to finish my set…” He grumpily tried to get up.
“No, don’t go… I was getting into it.” I turned to the suitcase. “Get those nerd muscles in your brain to explain it to me… Just skip a day and spend some time with me, it won’t kill you!”
“I do need my exercises Azreth.” He grumpily sighed at me.
“Pleeeease.” I insisted looking up to him with my most disingenuous smile.
He rolled his eyes and sighed heavily, noticing he had no choice but to comply. “I really should have just fucked you.” He growled.
“That option never left the table.” I played around again.
“You do not get zhat today.” He declared all grumpy, pouting like he had been outplayed in a game he really wanted to win.
I don’t even know if I planned it subconsciously or not… All I knew is that it was nice to have his company for a change, and sure we never fooled around, but to be honest… I didn’t really feel the need to after that.
We spent a good few hours chatting about his suitcase, and yet I feel like I learned nothing… You can say I was distracted as I couldn’t get my eyes of his cutesy feline smile.
Sometimes the best part of the treasure is not inside the chest, am I right?
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